A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left.
Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Council by-election results

There were some real by-elections last night, as well as the pointless waste of public money in Haltemprice & Howden.

Croft Ward, Blyth Valley DC. Lab hold. Lab 439 (48%, -9%), Ind 266 (29.1%, +29.1%), LD 176 (19.3%, -7%), Con 32 (3.5%, -13.2%). Swing of 19.1% from Lab to Ind since 2007. However, there is a swing to Lab compared with the May 1 results for the new Northumberland Unitary. Blyth Valley DC is being abolished next year.

Barton Ward, Canterbury DC. LD hold. LD 993 (51.8%, +8.1%), Con 701 (36.6%, +4.2%), Green 121 (6.3%, +6.3%), Ind 102 (5.3%). Swing of 2% from Con to LD since 2007. Strange that there was no Labour candidate in a ward that I'm fairly sure was a 3-way marginal in the '90s - is there a non-aggression pact between the former coalition partners in my home town?

I'm sure that the 'retiring' Labour MP would be more than happy to dip into his pocket for Labours fighting fund...........after all; he embezzled £500,000 of his constituents money to pay for his 'office & secretarial expenses' which turned out to be his front room and his wife (possibly his daughter...he doesn't seem to remember which)

I rather agree with you on 42 days , in an sense , and I was ambivalent/mystified by the whole by-election. I agree 42 days is not a matter of principle, it is a matter of judgement and DD at another time might easily have taken the opposing view. Nonetheless I have seen absolutely nothing that justifies the Police having such powers now and the Parliamentary scrutiny is an insult to the intelligence . Inspector Knacker, we are assured , is too busy retiring at 50 defrauding the PA scheme bothering drivers and getting fat at his desk to put twice the bodies on this ,and must have six weeks . If they cannot make their case then it follows that Parliament is going to have to take their word for it . So much for scrutiny. Worthless and irritating as any imposture is.

“This scrutiny committee accepts the man has a scowling demeanour and eyebrows that meet . The Police are right to continue their encrypting or de-encrypting or some long word such as appears at the end of a shampoo commercial ( Here’s the science bit ).”

Still a couple of bombs and I will want anyone who looks funny banged up in perpetuity .Much more serious , in my view is the incremental encroachment both on the legal system and the casual spread of data /surveillance sharing and so on.I am appalled at the perjurers charterof anonymong witnesses . This truly strikes at the heart of open justice again handing power to the Police .So for me DD chose the wrong issue and the wrong time. We may have made some Liberal friends but they will soon be off. I would have far preferred to see him exclaim in anger that if witnesses are so habitually terrified of appearing in court justice cannot be served ,we not take the streets back, before we return to the star chamber .

It was less than edifying to see Ian Paisley bought off , in fact the joke that Brown’s fixers persuaded him of the dangers of terrorism is so ridiculous its almost worth it ...”Bombs yew say ...thart sounds verry dangerous ...coo “. Still this is part of Parliamentary democracy working imperfectly but as it always has done . It remains better than the alternatives including media stunt gestures .

Incidentally Luke for all I do not much like this sort of stunt I do not agree that it hasnot been worth it for the Conservative Party. brown has given up priceless Liberal ground here that labour can no never get back.wE Conservatives well know the slow piison of being agaisn the Liberal media and the raw numbers are not the whole point over time .

Luke,Full figures to follow, but Labour won Croft ward in Blyth Valley on a 47% share of the vote, up 8% points on the share achieved on May 1st. The awkward news for the governemnt is that the winning candidate, Deirdre Campbell, probably benefitted from the hammering her husband, Ronnie, has given the government in parliament over road tax.

I don't think it was a waste of money when you take into account the reasons behind it.

In my eyes it shows David Davis as a man of principle and a person willing to put his job on the line for what he believes. Not many politicians do that these days.

I've been on holiday in the South of France but from what I've heard he won with a large majority. Good on him and whether you stand by his views or not he should be respected for his decision.

It was a little bit weird coming back to the UK because of the economic turmoil sweeping the UK economy. The French and Germans are hardly affected and I can't help thinking why? My house in France is still gaining value and inflation is high but not as noticeable as in Britain. And more importantly the French are still a very happy country....hard to say this about the British at the moment.

Something is very wrong with Britain and how it is being run and I can only hope the conservatives manage to mend some of the ills. If they don't then the UK is in for some very big shocks.

More analysis on the Blyth Valley result - a 5% swing from LibDems to Labour plus a 1.5% swing from the independent candidate and from the Conservatives to Labour produced this encouraging result. On this sort of swing Labour would still be in control in Northumberland.

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About Me

Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.